April Five projects from NUI Galway awarded grants for academic and industry collaborations

Five NUI Galway researchers have secured funding as part of an initiative to support new academic and industry research collaborations on behalf of Science Foundation Ireland.

The SFI Industry RD&I Fellowship Programme will support the temporary placement of academic researchers in companies to undertake research projects across a variety of areas including orthopaedic implants, biomedical science, mechanical engineering, virtual reality (VR), and chatbots optimisation.

The five funded projects will be led by:

• Dr Eimear O'Hara, Mechanical Engineering, who will work with Zimmer Biomet on sustainable additive manufacturing of orthopaedic implants
• Dr Marie Le Berre, Biomedical Science, will partner with Analog Devices, Inc. on a project entitled ‘Putting the Bio in Biosensing: Bioassay Development for a Silicon-based Electrical Transduction Platform’
• Dr Akash Pisharody, Civil Engineering, who will be part of a research collaboration with EireComposites Teo on the mechanical behavior of recycled carbon fiber composites subject to hygrothermal exposure
• Dr Lukasz Porwol, Insight Centre for Data Analytics, will collaborate with Fidelity Investments Ireland on ‘The Next-Gen VR-driven Serious Communication & Collaboration Hybrid Infrastructures for Business’ project
• Dr Jamal Nasir, College of Science and Engineering, will partner with Fidelity Investments Ireland on goal-oriented chatbots optimisation with reinforcement learning

Welcoming the announcement, Professor Jim Livesey, Vice President for Research and Innovation, NUI Galway, said: “I’d like to commend our researchers on being awarded the SFI Industry RD&I Fellowships for their innovate projects. This initiative will allow research fellows and industry to benefit from each other’s invaluable knowledge and expertise.” 

The Fellowship programme is designed to help kick-start postdoctoral academic researchers’ careers in industry and to maximise the impact of their training. The programme also supports academic faculty researchers who want to spend time in industry alongside their academic responsibilities. Simultaneously, the placement will allow industry partners to benefit from their research fellows’ knowledge to collaborate on bringing innovative solutions to industry challenges.

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